In the spring of 2020, Emma Stapleton was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa by the Alpha of Tennessee chapter at Vanderbilt University. Her grandfather, also a Phi Beta Kappa member, was happy to note that Emma was the third generation of their family to join the Society. Her great grandmother, Marion Francis Keane (ΦBK, University of Chicago, 1934), married George A. Crapple, also a graduate of the University of Chicago; their son George Edwin Crapple (ΦBK, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1966) was the second ΦBK in the the family. Emma Stapleton (ΦBK, Vanderbilt University, 2020) is the granddaughter of George E. Crapple.
Emma’s grandfather George passed away shortly after she was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. “He was an incredible man filled with so much light and such a strong passion for learning,” she said, adding that he talked about the three generations of his family to become ΦBK throughout her whole election process at Vanderbilt. “I know it meant a great deal to him,” she said.